Jessica, your point is so well expressed. Foretunately, your exprience, though widely shared, is not universal. My Millennial son is a good example. Thanks to a scholarship, most of his university expensives were covered for his theatre arts degree! And on graduating, he built up a dog-walking business while performing. Thought the acting vanished during the pandemic, and the dog walking diminished, he's been able to pay his modest downtown rent and stay solvent - primarily by not buying stuff on credit. He's got that mentaility for a simpler life that your in-laws practiced. Okay - that does not help all those who fell for the student loan con - it makes me furious to think of a generation living under a rock of crushing debt. That has to make one dream of wild schemes...and thus more vulnerable to future cons and pyramid schemes, from Amway to Bitcoin.